


from fire

by malignance



Series: while the world burns [3]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/M, the rest of the vks are in this a little too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-26 22:03:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20749475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malignance/pseuds/malignance
Summary: Auradon refuses to die, not without bringing the children down with them.





	from fire

**Author's Note:**

> final part of my weird descendants au where things are just a lot sadder than in the movies LKFJSLJFSF

Ben feels his fangs try to push through, feels the prickle of anger on the back of his neck where his hair is standing up now.

Something must've flashed through his eyes, if Chad's reaction is anything to go by, but he stomps down the fury before it reaches too far, before he turns into-

"Woah, Ben, chill."

Ben wants to bite back, wants to ask him _why _he should be chill when he's being asked to leave his new life behind for Auradon, to save a place that he had already given up on, a place that had thrown away the woman he loves as if she was nothing. 

But before he can make a sound, Evie places her hand on his arm, and his anger dies in his throat, he swallows his words.

"Why us? Why do we have to go back?"

Chad sighs, looking more exhausted than either of them have ever seen him.

And seeing him like this makes Evie want to do... something, but she looks beyond him, at Auradon, and knows the last thing she wants to do is go back there.

"We've tried everything else. You guys, and the rest of the VKs, you're our last resort. We don't have any other options."

Evie sucks in a breath as Ben's fingers come to wrap around hers.

She knows already, what the answer will be, that they're both thinking the same thing.

It's entirely too early to be crying, but her eyes are watering anyway, seeing all them gathered like this again, in this godforsaken place again. She'd hoped she would meet them again somewhere different, some other time, for some other occasion.

Jay squeezes her shoulder, and she wills her tears away for now. 

_This is no time to be crying. Not yet._

"Hades is my father." Mal says, apropos of nothing.

Evie exchanges a look with Carlos. Not exactly something of shock, or surprise, just sadness, just a hint of pity.

Mal had been dealt awful cards from the beginning.

"We're still kicking his ass though, right?" Jay asks, a ghost of a grin on his lips. 

Mal laughs, harsh against the silence, bitter.

"Yeah. But _only _after I'm through with him."

Evie opens her mouth, something sympathetic on the tip of her tongue, like an apology, but she looks at the way Mal shakes, shakes with rage and fear and uncertainty, and decides to keep those words to herself.

She can barely register the feeling of Ben's hand in hers.

This is Mal, and this is her moment, her story, her father, her fight. 

Ben, Carlos, Jay, Auradon, her, they are all just background noise.

"Dad." Mal spits, the same way she curses.

Hades laughs, something cruel, something maniacal. 

"Daughter," He says in return, "what's it been? Eighteen? Nineteen years?"

Something flickers in Mal's gaze then. The years of loneliness and rejection, of yearning and hoping, of abandonment and neglect, they all surface for a split second. 

It comes quick, and fades quicker, but they all see it, they all recognise it.

Everyone but Hades, who stands opposite his daughter, his daughter who he doesn't know, his daughter who he has never once thought of in their years of separation, his daughter who he (and Mal now knows this, for certain, sees it in his eyes) has never loved.

"Let's get this over with."

Mal raises her arm, and without much delay, five kids charge into battle.

Hades bares his teeth, looking unhinged, like he is about to devour them whole.

(And yes, they are still kids, but even so, they should not be underestimated).

The battle ends with a scream, and Evie, in the haze of it all, cannot tell who it comes from.

Behind the fog, a figure emerges.

Evie's knees give out, and Jay just barely makes it in time to catch her before she falls.

Mal comes through, purple hair and all, bloody and cut up almost beyond recognition, but alive, but _alive. _

Evie lets herself cry this time, lets the tears flow freely. Her sobs get drowned out by Carlos' own, by Jay's hollering, by Mal's cackling.

And even though her legs can barely hold herself up, she runs, they all run, and they collide in the middle, fall over in big heap, blood and snot and tears everywhere.

Auradon is all thanks, and celebrations, and happiness.

But no apologies, not a single one.

Evie drifts in and out of the King's speech, even though her name crops up quite a few times.

She looks over at Ben, who's starting to fall asleep, and smiles a little.

"E," Mal whispers, secretive and slightly mischievous, "let's blow this popsicle stand."

Evie grins, giggling a little at the restless way Jay looks to her and the bridge then back to her again.

"Okay." She whispers back, and the four of them sneak away while the marching band steps forward.

Evie's legs are still sore, Mal still has all kinds of fresh wounds, Jay hasn't managed to catch a wink of sleep since they got to Auradon three days ago, and Carlos' left arm is still in a cast, but still they run, full speed, to the bridge, laughing and whispering along the way.

Once there, Evie watches them go one by one.

There are no goodbyes, just smiles and hugs and kisses. But no goodbyes, not goodbyes, not yet.

Ben catches up when they've all gone, and they stand side by side for a moment, just looking out into the horizon.

"Where are you going?" He asks, after a while.

Evie smiles, and looks to where their home is, where their town is, where their people are.

"Somewhere far, far away from here."

Ben follows her gaze, and her thoughts, and wonders if she knows he would follow her to the ends of the earth.

"Would you mind some company?"

He asks her this, with his arm outstretched, palm up.

"I wouldn't."

And then she takes his hand, and they run.

**Author's Note:**

> hades ded. he died. mal obliterated him. he was big jerk! n now mal can finally move on without anything holding her back, and ben and evie can finally live in peace as the cutest couple ever <333 closure for everybody


End file.
